Before I tasted Indian Chutney, I tasted Helen Manao’s Pilipino style chutney. Helen was one of our cooks when I was growing up. Helen was a native of Romblon and didn’t have a clue to cooking till my mother trained her. What she had instead was perseverance and patience. Helen did not know how to read or write; nor did she know her numbers. She learned by asking us how to add and subtract and how to read and write. You could see beads of perspiration on her forehead when she had to give an accounting of her market purchases to my mother. That is when she would come to me or to Adelisa Angeles, our adopted sister, to help her out. She used to say that Romblon was a barren place and all it had was marble. Maybe because she came from something barren that ambition is what drove her to not only learn how to cook well but to eventually be a land owner.
My grandmother had a mango orchard and when it was mango season, we would receive ‘kaing’ (bushels) of green mangoes. With so much mangoes, we couldn’t eat them all nor give them away; Helen and Mom would think of ways on how to use the mangoes and that is where mango jam and mango chutney came to be.
Making mango chutney is a bit tedious but well worth the work and time. Use mangoes that are half ripe; still firm but beginning to show the yellow. When you flick your finger on the mango, it must sound hollow.
Mango Chutney Pilipino Style
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Loading...Making mango chutney is a bit tedious but well worth the work and time. Use mangoes that are half ripe; still firm but beginning to show the yellow. When you flick your finger on the mango, it must sound hollow.
Ingredients
- ½ kilo half ripe green mangoes - skin must still be green but showing some yellow
- 1 kilo almost ripe mangoes but firm
- 750 grams white sugar
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
Weigh all the mixing bowls you will use and take note of the empty bowl weight.
Using a potato peeler, peel the green and ripe mangoes and keep them in separate bowls.
Continuing with the potato peeler, shave slivers of the green mangoes till the seed appears. Discard the seeds.
Using a large hole grater, grate the almost ripe mangoes.
Now weigh both bowls and subtract the empty weight of the bowls to know the actual weight of just the mangoes.
Whatever is the total weight of the mangoes, divide it in half and that is the amount of sugar you need for making the chutney.
Spread the green and ripe mango on a "bilao" (flat basket) and sun dry the mangoes for about 3 - 4 hours.
Place the sun-dried mangoes in a non-corrosive pot (glass, ceramic or stainless; best is copper) and add the sugar, lemon juice, and light corn syrup.
Over very low fire, start to make a jam of the mangoes.
When the mango chutney starts to coat your wooden spoon, the chutney is right.
The perfect temperature for the chutney is 95ºC (203ºF)
Cool, then place in clean bottles and refrigerate.
Notes
Use as an accompaniment to your curry dishes.
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